Identification of torque teno virus in culture-negative endophthalmitis by representational deep DNA sequencing.

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that uncultured organisms may be present in cases of culture-negative endophthalmitis by use of deep DNA sequencing of vitreous biopsies.

Design: Single-center, consecutive, prospective, observational study.

Participants: Aqueous or vitreous biopsies from 21 consecutive patients presenting with presumed infectious endophthalmitis and 7 vitreous samples from patients undergoing surgery for noninfectious retinal disorders.

Vision loss after intravitreal ocriplasmin: correlation of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography and electroretinography.

IMPORTANCE Clinical trials indicate that visual impairment is significantly greater in patients receiving ocriplasmin than placebo. The mechanism of this symptom has not been explained. We report a patient with persistent darkening of her vision after intravitreal ocriplasmin and describe ancillary testing findings that may yield insights into the effects of ocriplasmin and the cause of this symptom.

Stem cell therapy for retinal disease.

Purpose Of Review: Stem cell therapy holds great promise for the treatment of retinal diseases. This review summarizes recent advances in stem cell biology, outlines ongoing clinical trials and details the obstacles that must be overcome for stem cell therapy to be a viable treatment for retinal disease.

Recent Findings: Stem cells can now be directed to specific retinal cell fates with high yields and acceptable purity for clinical trials.

Hypertensive retinopathy in a child caused by pheochromocytoma: identification after a failed school vision screening.

A 7-year-old girl was referred for ophthalmological examination after the result of a routine school vision screening identified unilateral vision loss. Fundus examination showed bilateral but markedly asymmetric macular exudates and optic disk edema. After the results of two blood pressure measurements were within normal limits, a third markedly elevated measurement revealed malignant hypertension and led to a diagnosis of pheochromocytoma, a rare catecholamine-secreting tumor.

Treatment of acute retinal necrosis.

Objectives: To compare outcomes from patients with acute retinal necrosis (ARN) treated in the acyclovir-only era with those treated in the era of newer antiviral therapies, identify variables affecting outcomes in ARN, and evaluate strategies for fellow eye prophylaxis.

Design: Multicenter, nonrandomized, retrospective, interventional series.

Participants: A cohort of 58 patients diagnosed with ARN by a retina specialist at 1 of 4 referral centers between 1981 and 2008.

Crystal structure of a FYVE-type zinc finger domain from the caspase regulator CARP2.

The caspase-associated ring proteins (CARP1 and CARP2) are distinguished from other caspase regulators by the presence of a FYVE-type zinc finger domain. FYVE-type domains are divided into two known classes: FYVE domains that specifically bind to phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate in lipid bilayers and FYVE-related domains of undetermined function. Here, we report the crystal structure of the N-terminal region of CARP2 (44-139) including the FYVE-type domain and its associated helical bundle at 1.

The death effector domain protein family: regulators of cellular homeostasis.

The death effector domain (DED) occurs in proteins that regulate programmed cell death. Both pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins containing DEDs have been identified. For Fas and possibly other death receptors, homotypic DED interactions connect the Fas-associated death domain (FADD) protein to caspase-8 and caspase-10 to mediate formation of the death-inducing signal complex.